National improvement programme appoints local doctor

12 December 2018

Local Consultant Psychiatrist Dr Ian Davidson has been appointed to the NHS healthcare improvement programme Getting it Right First Time (GIRFT).

GIRFT is a national programme designed to improve the quality of care within the NHS by reducing unwarranted variations. It is led by frontline clinicians who are experts in the areas they are reviewing. Dr Davidson, Consultant Psychiatrist and Quality Lead at Cheshire and Wirral Partnership NHS Foundation Trust (CWP), joins the programme to focus on Crisis and Acute Adult Mental Health.

Dr Davidson said: “Acute mental health services are a vital part of improving mental health and wellbeing for local communities, although across the country they have been experiencing huge and rising pressures.

“I am delighted that the GIRFT acute mental health programme will be an opportunity to learn and share best practice, and to reduce unwarranted variation to make best use of available resources to deliver the best outcomes for people and their local communities.”

Professor Tim Briggs, chair of GIRFT and national director of clinical quality and efficiency at NHS Improvement, said: “We are delighted to welcome our third mental health clinical lead, Dr Ian Davidson, to the GIRFT programme to complete the clinical support for our mental health workstream. He joins us with extensive experience and frontline insight to support the national review, which will be published in 2019/20.”

Dr Anushta Sivananthan, Consultant Psychiatrist and CWP Medical Director, said “Reducing unwarranted variation across NHS services will help ensure that the right people are given the right care in the right place at the right time across our populations.

“Dr Davidson’s expertise in this area will be a huge benefit to the GIRFT programme and the overall vision we’re striving towards at both a local and national level.”

In addition to his role with the GIRFT programme, Dr Davidson was in 2016 named national Autism Champion by The Royal College of Psychiatrists for their ‘Think Autism’ campaign – a cross-government strategy led by the Department of Health and supported by NHS England.

CWP has been rated ‘Good’ overall and ‘Outstanding for Caring’ following a recent Care Quality Commission (CQC) inspection. The Trust is the only NHS provider in Cheshire and Wirral (and mental health trust in the Northwest) to achieve ‘Outstanding for Caring’.